i plan to sell my phone but before i do i was wondering whats the best way to completely delete and shred my personal data making them unrecoverable knowing that even after a factory reset old data can still be recoverd such as picture, contacts, and number. thanks in advance guys
Related
I read somewhere that Android keeps your personal data even after hard resetting the phone as it only delete the path of files nd original files are remain untouched. I just want to know if it is true or not..
Sent from my A110Q using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Isn't that true for just about every storage device? I think the issue is when you erase the storage media, traces of the files can be recovered from the storage. This is true for your phone and also your personal computer. If you formatted your hard drive, someone could still use a data recovery to recover your data. Short of totally destroying your physical media, there may be no 100% way of erasing all data. The realistic goal would be erasing the data to the point where an average person can't recover it.
Based on what I read from the article, the issue is that if you erase your phone, the data can still be recovered from the phone using off-the shelve tool. Apple is a bit better since later generation of iphone handles encryption better. If you want to avoid this situation, look into an android phone with encryption features.
Paul
Check the settings, you might have the option to encrypt your data in there. Takes around an hour if your device is fairly new.
Glompish said:
Check the settings, you might have the option to encrypt your data in there. Takes around an hour if your device is fairly new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good way of making sure your 'deleted' files, if they're still there, are inacessable.
But can make backup and recovery a real *****....
paul.siu said:
Isn't that true for just about every storage device? I think the issue is when you erase the storage media, traces of the files can be recovered from the storage. This is true for your phone and also your personal computer. If you formatted your hard drive, someone could still use a data recovery to recover your data. Short of totally destroying your physical media, there may be no 100% way of erasing all data. The realistic goal would be erasing the data to the point where an average person can't recover it.
Based on what I read from the article, the issue is that if you erase your phone, the data can still be recovered from the phone using off-the shelve tool. Apple is a bit better since later generation of iphone handles encryption better. If you want to avoid this situation, look into an android phone with encryption features.
Paul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes some of the data can be recovered but that is only as long as it has not been over written. The easiest thing to do is to wipe the device and use a Stock rom flash file to over write the system a few times formatting all partitions.
After hard-reset, data will be erased from device.
But, if your data was synchronized with Google cloud services, they will remain alive after Android hard-reset.
All user data have been lost after hard reset
I imagine that after a factory reset, all information stored on the device previously will be erased, however, i believe that information synced with email accounts or applications will be saved
A factory reset is theoretically the best way to clear data and should work for most phones, see Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset. However, a company called Avast Software did a study recently and found they were able to recover photos from 20 handsets bought on Ebay. They say the owners did a factory reset but I'm a bit skeptical that maybe they claimed to but didn't.
Marc
i think the same thingh.
google keeps all of our information in its database... we are not its user but just product...
As zelendel said, data can be recovered after a factory reset. Have a look at this thread 'Deleting data' part.
I googled this and from what i read, so long as i log out of all services and set my lock screen to none, I then make sure that strong encryption is enabled then do a reset and this way it secure wipes?
Is this correct or am i best doing something else?
James
As I know, the best way to securly wipe s10+ to sell is using Samsung data eraser software. Such software can help us wipe all personal info on your S10+ phone without recovery. Then you can sell it without data leaked. Hope this will be your help.
The main way that data is stolen from wiped phones is because people fail to actually wipe them - as long as Strong Encryption on your S10 overwrites your entire storage then your data (Probably) no longer exists on that phone. Unless they can find the encryption key, but that would (should) be wiped on factory reset.
When you delete data, it isn't actually deleted, it's memory region is just marked as free real estate for new data to be written. Once it's replaced it's gone, otherwise its recoverable. Encryption should do the trick, as the data in memory marked as open will be scrambled without the key.
If you're feeling particularly paranoid however, you can also load dummy data onto your phone for an extra layer of protection, there are several tools for doing this, some of which are on the play store, before wiping it a second time.
Good luck with the sale!
(EDIT: Nazhais suggestion popped up as I was writing, but yes, data erasing software is probably the way to go.)
Hi all,
I'm looking to find a "kill switch" for android phones. I know android already erases data when the wrong password is entered either within android or on boot in some cases. But there is ways of recovering that.
I need to have data completely unrecoverable if a phone is lost or stolen due to business and client data. (Gdpr and all that)
does anyone know or have a solution? Even if the device itself is not usable ever again.
If you override the data in question with zeroes or random numbers then these data are really unrecoverable, IMHO.
jwoegerbauer said:
If you override the data in question with zeroes or random numbers then these data are really unrecoverable, IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean the entire phone data
With regards to a mobile my understanding of "data" is that this term is used for account info, settings, saved activity data, game scores, and whatever is need to be kept permanently.
Hello,
I wanted to know if there is any way to recover old data from a wiped phone (pictures, notes, Whatsapp data). My phone had a max incorrect attempt limit which would wipe the phone data if reached. I tried to use my backup that I had but Google is requiring my old PIN code for my lock screen. I can't remember the PIN, as far as Whatsapp is concerned, apparently the backup did not save to Google drive ( I think it may have been set to save locally). Any help would be appreciated!
D4rkSh4dow said:
Hello,
I wanted to know if there is any way to recover old data from a wiped phone (pictures, notes, Whatsapp data). My phone had a max incorrect attempt limit which would wipe the phone data if reached. I tried to use my backup that I had but Google is requiring my old PIN code for my lock screen. I can't remember the PIN, as far as Whatsapp is concerned, apparently the backup did not save to Google drive ( I think it may have been set to save locally). Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying to help where I just googled for what the answer might be and there seems to be a bunch of ways to recover deleted data (although I'm sure the level of success depends on how well it was deleted and wiped clean and overwritten multiple times with all zeroes, etc.).
Here are some of those hits which "might" help (you'll have to test them).
How to retrieve lost files on Android: Your guide to Android data recovery
Why It’s So Hard to Recover Deleted Data on Android and What to Do About It
The ultimate Android data recovery guide
Hope this helps.
Background:
A person I know, dropped his phone (Android Oreo or above) into the water while at a beach. He tried keeping the phone in a bag of rice etc., but he can't get it to work. It won't even start. Samsung support said he'd need to replace the motherboard. He does not want the phone working again, but he wants the vacation photos from the phone. In Bangalore, there are some data recovery services that say they can recover the data for him (one of them mentioned some Spider technology).
Primary question:
Is the data recovery team's claim that they can recover the photos, actually legitimate? Can the photos be recovered from the phone in such a situation? How would they do it? Since the data on the phone would be encrypted (a password was needed to unlock the phone), would the data recovery team use a motherboard from a similar phone, connect it to the data storage and ask him to type his password to be able to access the data? If instead they removed the NAND storage and connected it to another board, wouldn't it be impossible to access the data without typing the phone's unlock password to decrypt it?
Concerns:
They might be bluffing, and this could just be a way to get paid for the "effort" that they put in to try recovering the data even if they can't eventually do it.
The data recovery team could clone the data and use brute-force techniques to gain access to any other data.
They could misuse any payment information stored on the phone.
They may view WhatsApp chats or other WhatsApp data stored (he says his WhatsApp is protected by fingerprint recognition).
if privacy is the main concern here, do it through samsung, through the official means. whats more important, the price of a motherboard or their privacy ?